A California man who kidnapped and raped a 7-year-old girl with severe developmental disabilities was sentenced Friday to 65 years to life in state prison.

The convicted rapist was brought to justice because of an unlikely and brave little hero -- the victim's 8-year-old friend.

Daniel Vlas Flores approached the victim, who was playing with an 8-year-old girl and two boys in an apartment courtyard in Huntington Beach on April 19, 2009. Flores, then 30, told the children, who were under the care of a babysitter, that he needed help moving his furniture,

The 8-year-old girl urged the man to take the boys to help him, but Flores pulled the victim -- who repeatedly said she did not want to go -- by the hand and ran with her into his nearby apartment.

When the 8-year-old girl became concerned that her friend had not returned, she found Flores' apartment and unlatched a sliding-glass door, through which the victim was able to escape. The victimized girl ran home, grabbed a photo of her mother andlocked herself in a bathroom crying,